Editor's Notebook

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Who knows what the Iowa voter wants these days? It might be Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who is running as a Democrat for President, not saying a whole lot but listening for a message that can take hold.

Merkley stopped by Storm Lake a week ago with an aide who was graduated from Grinnell College. He is trying to get a lay of the land and the temper of 2020 presidential cycle while campaigning for legislative candidates and stopping in The City Beautiful for a cup at Better Day Café.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Seldom has Storm Lake looked more beautiful than last Thursday at 6 p.m. as the sun softened over Little Lake and Frank Starr Park. Admittedly, it looks harsher in February.

The end of a two-day drive from Las Cruces, N.M., came with a wave of relief amid the green land and blue skies just after a nice shower. We don’t know how lucky we are, what we have and what we could lose if we’re not careful.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

In case I hadn’t reminded you enough, I have a book about Storm Lake coming out on Oct. 2. Apt that the title is “Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper.” It is considered bad Iowa form to brag but we have books and newspapers to sell, which is an indelicate business, yet Peach the Newshound can’t just live on love. So I must report that the early reviews have just come in for the book, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House in New York.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

The Iowa Republican Party found farmers last weekend to praise President Trump, tariffs and a trade war as a painful but necessary move that will bring long-term success to the Tall Corn State. They brought in Bill Northey, now of the USDA, to put a smiling face on the grim situation as beans have taken a $2 beating of late. Loyal farmers said they understand.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

She called about hog confinements surrounding her, with her mind on air and water.

“It’s putrid. I can barely breathe at night,” she said.

This older woman can appreciate the smell of money. She and her husband used to raise hogs. Now they just have some cattle grazing grass along the creek, and farther back they raise corn and soybeans.

A sign of a healthier ecosystem, and no cause for alarm

The loon liked it

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Weeds are finally returning to Storm Lake, and that’s a good thing.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

The country is paying attention to the debate about water quality in Iowa, the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. It was the topic of conversation Monday with Harry Smith, an NBC News correspondent who hosted National Public Radio’s “On Point” morning program. I was among four panelists, the others being water researcher Chris Jones of the University of Iowa, farmer and cattlewoman Cheryl Johnson of Cushing, and hydrologist Gene Turner of Louisiana State University.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

So few Buena Vista County Democrats showed up to vote in the June 5 primary that it brought a special shout-out from the liberal website Iowa Starting Line in a post that detailed low-turnout counties: almost all of them rural or shelled-out manufacturing towns like Clinton.

“Finally, for all the talk that Iowa Democrats like to do about increasing Latino turnout in places like Storm Lake, the numbers never end up corresponding. Buena Vista came in dead last with a 15% turnout,” wrote Pat Rynard.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

I don’t need a badge or a gun, or even Miss Kitty. Just being grand marshal of the Star Spangled Spectacular Parade is plenty enough for me, Festus.

To follow in the tradition of Bob Feller, who threw the heater in Van Meter to Nile Kinnick on a town team, is grand indeed.

And in your own hometown, with Jake Kurtz driving unless he stands me up.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

President Trump, conducting official business through Twitter, told his minions in Congress to blow off immigration until after the midterms. We can lock them up in the meantime while we set the stage for the debate. And so it began that Steve King took to Twitter proclaiming that he doesn’t want Somali Muslims cutting his pork, and pretty much that our culture is going down the tubes. Same song, another verse.